The police woke up May Wong, 61, at her Pasadena home at 1:30 a.m. The Eaton Fire was raging in the nearby canyon. It was time to go.
“I grabbed Ducky and Nico and not much else. It was hard to walk to the car because the wind kept pushing me against the wall,” the Kaiser Permanente systems analyst said.
Wong, her 30-year-old green parrot Ducky, and 14-year-old longhair cat Nico spent that first at the Pasadena Convention Center. They sheltered with family for another day before Wong thought of boarding her pets.
“I was freaking out, and I needed to be able to take care of one thing,” she said. “For me not to worry about them was everything.”
On Thursday, Wong returned to the center where staff first reunited her with Ducky after a weeklong separation.
“Hi, Ducky, Ducky, you got a new toy,” she said, bending toward the bird cage for a kiss.
The green parrot was 4 months old when Wong got her.
“I called him Ducky because he used to make quacking noises,” she said.
Ducky has since enhanced his conversation with other nuggets, such as “I’d like a martini,” “Here, kitty, kitty” and “Hi, pretty bird.” She and her cat sibling Nico get along, with Nico mostly ignoring her, Wong said.
This latest reunion was one of many the center has completed among pet owners fleeing the Eaton Fire, said Miriam Davenport, vice president of the spcaLA.
Madeline Bernstein, president of the spcaLA, got a call from Dia DuVernet, president of Pasadena Humane at 6 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8, asking if their facility could take in pets from crowds of people evacuating because of the Eaton Fire.
“I said, ‘We’ll make room,’” Bernstein said, deploying staff and volunteers to the Los Angeles pet adoption center. “This is what we do. I know what it’s like to be frazzled and if we can give pet owners a breather, knowing their pets are being fed and played with and getting medical care if they need it, we’re doing our job.”
Davenport said the center usually allows pets to stay 14 days, with 21 staff and a host of volunteers tending to them. Most of their wildfire boarders came from families with multiple pets.
The spcaLA, founded in 1877, is an independent nonprofit unrelated to a national SPCA. Aside from taking in animals from the wildfires, it also does cruelty investigations, a disaster animal response team, humane education and more. It has deployed teams to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, San Bernardino and Riverside counties for the 2020 El Dorado fires, and even Sri Lanka after a cyclone in 2023.
Bernstein herself was briefly evacuated amid 0the Palisades fire, and she still has her car packed up and her pet tortoises George and Mulan safely boarded.
While she and her staff are used to disaster preparedness, “the level of destruction here is unprecedented,” she said.
Davenport reassured Wong that her pets were good guests, with Ducky talking up a storm and having a good time. Wong admitted she’s missed her pets.
“I’m glad I was able to get them out,” she said. “Some people weren’t as lucky.”
Bernstein said spcaLA does have space for more pets, but advices owners first call at 323-730-5300. Donations in kind are always welcome, but monetary help is best.